As many of you know, I am an amateur photographer. I have another blog where I post one picture every day and these next ten shots are my favorites from this year. I’ll go into a little more depth than normal on these because I like them so much.

10.

This is a sculpture that my mom got for some holiday (I think). It was taken towards the beginning of the year. I really like what goes on with the shadow and the character looking out of the frame. I think the grayscale works, too.

9.

Taken at the Hartford Auto show a month or two ago, this color was great. The black stripes just add to the awesome, I think. I’m really happy with the focus that I got on this one.

8.

This is from Horsebarn Hill at the very highest open point on the UConn campus. It was a kind of crappy rainy day earlier and I thought I would take the chance to go up to the hill and see if I could get some wide shots of the campus. As the light was fading I saw this line of clouds move in and then I realized that the sun would be setting right as they were passing over me. I only touched this up to recreate the colors that I saw that afternoon.

7.

I love the depth of focus on this one. It really captures the crunchiness of the leaves. Also, it looks cool. This was taken on one of my many photowalks around campus.

6.

From this Sunday, this is the only picture on the list that was taken with my new Canon XSi. It is also my new desktop background. I love it so much.

5.

From the same day as the cloud picture above. I had recently watched The Assassination of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford and I wanted to see if I could recreate the look of that film. I think I got pretty close. I also love the focus on this one.

4.

I think this one was taken towards the end of fall, even though it looks a lot like a spring picture. This is perhaps the best color I have gotten in a picture. I think it is beautiful.

3.

This isn’t the technically best shot but I think the beauty of it balances the so-so technical work. It was raining one afternoon after work at my summer job. We had just pulled into the driveway and I saw the sun shining while the rain was still falling. I crouched pretty low to the ground (I didn’t want to lay down for obvious reasons) to get as much sky as I could. I wish the background trees and house weren’t there, but I think the reflection works just as well even though the top half could have been better.

2.

Two days before my birthday I captured this on my way back from one of my classes. I enjoy shadows and how they are a version but not exactly the same as the real thing. I thought getting the very bottom of the actual tree and having the rest be in shadows was pretty great. I think I did it by accident, though. Which is lucky for me.

1.

As you can see, I like pictures of trees and nature and stuff. This is about two weeks after the previous shot and I think it is kind of amazing. I feel weird talking about my pictures like this, but there it is. Fromt this picture you would never be able to tell that the lake was actually a gross, duck crap filled pond. It looks like something out of Lord of the Rings, I think. All of these pictures are even better in a bigger size which you can see if you click on the pictures.